From the
family history of Richard Burian von Brunningen (Rburyan@aol.com) we have a trace to the village of
St. Buryan in Cornwall, England.
He wrote:
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Hungarian
& Austrian Burians came from St. Buryan in Cornwall |
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Posted
by: |
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Message: |
My
grandfather, Wilhelm Burian von Brunningen was a graf and freiherr in the
K.u.K. courts of Prague and Vienne. Born in Vienna in 1878 he was baptized a
Roman Catholic by the Cardinal Archbishop, served as a juniour officer in the
K.u.K. lifeguard and the 6th Boehmische Feldjaeger battalion, studied at the
University of Vienna taking degrees in civil engineering and architecture.
His father was Adalbert Burian von Brunningen the textiles monopolist; his
uncle Stefan Burian von Rajecz the Foreign Minister and briefly Finance
Minister. Hence, Burians are both Austrian (von Brunningen) and Hungarian
(von Rajecz). I am graf von Brunningen while cousin Peter in Toronto is graf
von Rajecz, whose parents served in the royal privy council before the
Communist invasion. When Wilhelm was commissioned an officer, his blood-line
had to be verified back a millenium. It was by that circumstance the imperial
bureaucrats in Vienna discovered Burians were first Buryans from St. Buryan
in Cornwall. The pagan tribe had been converted to Christianity by an Irish
'saint' missionary from the Church in Ireland, in Gaelic one Bruniac. She is
still remembered in Cornwall with an Anglican parish in her name. During the
Scilly Isle wars, Cornish Buryans collaborated with the English king and were
rewarded with baronial arms. This entailed the obligation to defend the
English king when called upon. At the Battle of Hastings we lost our Cornish
lands to the Normans, were taken prisoners of war and exiled to Northern
France. These Buryans travelled down the Danube and were feared as 'raub
ritters.' As we travelled, forgetting English and acquiring German and
Hungarian, Buryans became Burians. A fortress was built over fresh water
springs north of Vienna, hence von Brunningen (of the springs). Iron chain
drawn across the river stopped shipping and Burians extracted tariffs at the
blade of the sword. According to Siebmacher's Wappenbuch #7, these robber
barons were made counts by Rudolph I in 1601. Wilhelm was a ritter in the
Order of Maria Terese and a favourite of the empress Elizabeth. Adalbert held
textile monopolies while his brother Stefan became Foreign Minister and
briefly Finance Minister. I forget who was Prime Minister at the time. It is
in Stefan's Diary. When the emperor did not allow my grandfather, Wilhelm to
marry a particular baroness, senior officers in the court slandered the young
woman's mother. Wilhelm slew one or two in duells, was excommunicated by the
Church, exiled by the emperor, and came to New York City by way of Mexico in
1907. Because Stefan's father-in-law was General Kolowrat, who was directly
involved in the Mayerling Affair, grandpa spoke of quite a different version
of events from the official story of lovers' suicide. All this is on a tape
recording from Wilhelm himself who died in 1962 or '63 in Bronxville, New
York. His son, Edmund Frederick Buryan von Brunningen, born September 1913 in
New York died in 1985. May they enjoy everlasting peace. |
Further
research has to be done on this. We have to find the official documents in the Austrian
archives and/or hopefully get a copy of the personal papers from Mrs Burian von
Rajecz in Toronto. The historical background of St. Buryan was found on the
internet. The history starts with St. BURIANA, a Celtic missionary, who went to
Cornwall in the 5th century to christianise the pagan tribes of
Angels and Saxons.
THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY IN CORNWALL
In Penzance, at the western tip of Cornwall and the far west of Britain,
Christianity developed in a somewhat different manner and timing than in other
parts of the county. It was influenced from both sides.
Christianity first came to Britain in Roman times, from the end of the 2nd
century, when Pope Eleutherius sent missionaries in response to a request from
a native chieftain. By the time the Romans left the province to its own devices
in A.D.410, most of Britain had partially developed a fairly settled form of
Christianity. It is impossible to discover how widespread this was and exactly
where in our islands the Christian communities developed. With little Roman
involvement in Cornwall, it is doubtful there would have been any so far west.
This partial cover of Christianity in Britain would have continued for some
years after the Romans withdrew, as it would hardly have evaporated over night.
It was the invasion of pagan Germanic tribes, Angles, Saxons and Jutes,
pushing westwards from the 5th century that caused some of the original Roman
Britons to flee to the western periphery of the British Isles, and Little
Britain (Brittany) across the channel, taking their Christian (now referred to
as Celtic) faith with them. What proportion of Britons came west is impossible
to tell, as large numbers remained behind to become assimilated into Saxon
England as workers or slaves of the invaders.
There was much contact in Celtic times between the
various groupings in Ireland, Wales, Brittany and Cornwall. Many of the Celtic
monks travelled freely from one place to another, and even beyond into Europe;
and the cult of the early Celtic saints was equally "shared". Celtic
Christianity was widespread in the Penzance district, with the naming of the
villages and so many Celtic crosses and other remains. St. Buryan was
established as one of the main centres with a "monastery" of Celtic
monks.
Towards the end of Saxon and now Christian times in
England, King Athlestan began extending his authority into the Celtic extremes
of the island. Among other things, he founded a Cornish bishopric at St.
Germans with Conan, the abbot-bishop of the Celtic monastery there, as its
first bishop. On the foundations of Celtic monasteries he formed a number of
colleges of canons on the pattern of the Saxon Church; St. Buryan was one of
these. But later, in 1049 all the western bishoprics were centralised into the
diocese of Exeter.
The Norman times and the Middle Ages, brought much
building of churches and the parish system became well-established. The local
parish church of St. Madern, at Madron, with its well, was the church for the
area around Penzance. There was an old chapel on the Quay at Penzance dedicated
to Saints Gabriel and Raphael, though it would appear to have been called more
commonly St. Anthony's as in many fishing communities. The old chapel of St.
Mary's came more recently; as in many places where the centre of population was
shifting from an inland village to the port on the coast, the need grew for a
church on the spot. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, St. Mary's became more
important; when most of the chantries were being closed by King Edward's
Commissioners, they were asked for its retention because it was "dystante
from the parishe church ijmyles and halff".
Saints
& Legends
OF the saint who gives the church her name we really know nothing, except
that she was a king's daughter, and in the fifth century dwelt here, and here
built an oratory. At the same time it is not improbable that she is the same
person as 'Bruinsech the Slender,' commemorated in the Martyrology of Donegal
under May 29, the day that in an English Martyrology of 1608 is set down as St.
Buryan's feast, though this is now held on the nearest Sunday to May 12. Colgan
('Acta Sanctorurn Hiberniæ,' vol. i) conjectures that she can also be
identified with Bruinecha, one of the holy women who lived with the mother of
St. Piran. Dymna, the chief of Hua Fiack, admired her beauty and carried her
off to his castle by force. Piran then went to the castle to demand back his
sister (for his mother had adopted her), but the savage chief refused, unless,
as he said sneeringly, he should be awaked from sleep next morning by a swan -
a thing he deemed impossible, it being then the depth of winter. Holy Piran and
his comrades stood around the castle all night, and shortly snow began to fall
and covered the whole ground except where these holy men were posted. As
morning broke, it was seen that a miracle had been wrought, for there on every
roof and turret of the castle was perched a swan whose plaintive cries aroused
the inmates. Beside himself with fear, the chief craved pardon of the saint and
let the lovely Bruinecha free. Lust, however, was too strong for him; his heart
was hardened, like Pharaoh's of old, and in a few days he was seeking her
again; but at the news of his approach the lady died. Shocked by this, the
chief turned over a new leaf and showed such genuine signs of repentance that
Piran, feeling he might be trusted, by prayer restored the lady to life. The
story suggests Juliet and Friar Laurence; but, as we are dealing with the
doings of saints, related for our edification by other saints, it is safest to
believe the story as it has come down to us. The Cornish tradition that Buryan
was one of Piran's companions to this shore is consistent with the identity of
Buryan and Bruinecha. Tradition tells us nothing of her life in this county,
except that it was one of holy benevolence. How many noble men and noble women
pass from us every year in the same way, forgotten except for a dim tradition
of holiness and kindness, while persons of less worth but greater 'splash' have
pretentious monuments erected to their memory!
About a
mile or so south-east of the church is a little spot called 'The Sanctuary,' on
the farm of Bosliven, and here by the side of a gently running brook are still visible
the remains of what may possibly have been a small oratory. It is far from
improbable that this is the place where once lay the mortal remains of St.
Buryan, at whose shrine it was that Athelstan, in A.D. 939, vowed that, if
successful in his contemplated conquest of the Scilly Islands, he would, on his
return, found here a college of priests as an act of gratitude to God.
St. Buryan
According to tradition the Saxon
King Athelstan rested the night in the cell attached to the small Oratory of St.Buryan, (of which nothing now remains) the night before
he sailed to conquer the Isles of Scilly. The next morning he made his
communion and vowed that if he were successful he would found and endow a
church.
931-On the site of the Oratory was built the
church of King Athelstan, and experts express the opinion that the building on the
north side of the Chancel is the only remaining piece of this work. It seems
quite a small building, the west wall being just east of the present screen.
932-October 6th- The expedition having been
successful and by a charter signed this date by the king and witnessed by three
Archbishops, Bishop Donan of St. Germans and many other court officials
"in villa que dicitur Kyngestone" the king gave lands to the parish
"ea videlicet condicione ut libera sit illa prefata terra ab omni mundiali
censu nisi oracione quam Clerici michi promiserunt"(from a copy of the
charter made in 1238 and now in the Exeter Episc: Registry.) The words "ab
omni mindiali censu" (free from all temporal taxation) were a cause of a
law suit between the crown and Bishops of Exeter at a later date.
About King Athelstan giving land to the people
resp.chruch of St. Buryan:
S 450
A.D. 943
for 924 x 939 (Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, 6 Oct.). King Athelstan to the
church of St Buryan; grant of 1 hide (mansa) in seven places (at
Pendrea, Bosanketh, Botilwoelon, Treikyn, Bosliven and Treverven,
Cornwall, with land at Burnewhall). Latin with bounds.
Archive: Exeter
MS: Exeter, D.R.O., E/R 4, 25r (s. xiv)
Printed: K 1143; Oliver, Monasticon, pp.
8-9 (no. 1); B 785; Hingeston-Randolph 1894, i. 84-5; Hooke 1994, pp.
22-3, 25-6, bounds only.
Comments: Napier and Stevenson, pp. 74, 104 n. 6,
111, dubious; Alexander 1928; Rose-Troup 1935, spurious; Crofts 1949, corrupt
copy of genuine document; Crofts 1950, on bounds; Finberg, ECDC, no. 78;
Finberg 1964, p. 111, probably based on genuine original; O'Donovan 1972, pp.
33, 36, suspect, probably based on material from 931; Padel 1978, pp. 23, 26 n.
23, dubious; Olson 1989, pp. 78-84, genuine basis; Hooke 1994, pp. 22-7, on
bounds; Faith 1997, pp. 22-4, on territorial organisation.
A picture of St.
Buryan:
However, the name also has another derivation from the word
"Bury". Here is a description from: Hanks and Hodges, 1988.
English: habitation name or topographic name, ultimately from the dative
case, byrig, of Old English burh fortified place, originally used after a
preposition (e.g. Richard atte Bery). As inflections were lost in Middle
English, derivatives of the Old English dative replaced the Old English
nominative, the word taking forms such as biri, berie, and burie. In Middle
English this word acquired two different senses, both of which have given rise
to surnames. In late Old English and early Middle English it denoted a
fortified manor house, and the surname was used for someone who lived near a
manor house or as an occupational name for someone employed in a manor house.
The word also came to denote a fortified town, and is therefore an habitation
name from any of various places so named. From this sense developed the modern
English word borough. The surname Bury is especially common in Lancashire,
where it is no doubt mainly if not exclusively an habitation name from the town
of this name, but may also be from various other, less important, places
similarly named.
Variants:
Atberry, Atbury, Atterbury (with fused preposition); Berriman, Berryman
(chiefly Devon); Berry